Mashing Potatoes

There have been a few quick changes made at Casa Penner, and I thought instead of doing three short posts about the individual changes, I'd just mash them together into one long post. Well, honestly, it won't even be that long. 

Okay, first things first: our living room doesn't have a ceiling light, so we have to use table or floor lamps in order to keep it bright and cheerful. On the plus side, things are wired so that the top plug of every outlet turns on when we flip the light switch (ah, the innovations of people back in the 60's; fantastic). But on the other hand, that also means that we need to plug all our lamps into the top plugs... which can often lead to awkward extension cords. See below for a close up on an awkward extension cord. But that particular view is fine, because unless you lie down on the ground with your head pressed against the wall, you'll never see this. What you will see, however, is the extension cord running along the baseboard a couple feet until it reaches the outlet.

It used to be all loose and obvious and in the way, but the key words are "used to be". Because I fixed it. It took a staple gun. And a bunch of wasted staples (hey! Staples! I work there now) because some of them ended up going through the extension cord.... Thankfully, I was smart and unplugged it before I started shoving little pieces of metal through it. Remember, kids, electricity is dangerous!

Now you can hardly even tell it's there. And I can breathe again. 

Update number two is purely for deliciousness' sake. It is simply two bowls put on top of our living room side table. The first bowl contains pistachios (yum!) and the second bowl is there for the shells, so that you don't have to constantly be getting up to throw them into the garbage... and the shells don't end up mixed with the not-eaten-yet pistachios.

Plus, the bowls (which were a gift for us at a wedding shower) are completely adorable.

And they seriously look great sitting there with the rest of the table's set up. Mmm. Eye candy.

Finally, I did something totally crazy: I put a brown fitted sheet on our bed... underneath the white fitted sheet that we use. What? That's bonkers! Why'd you do that? Well, let me answer your horrified questions and ease your fears. I haven't lost my mind. The thing is that our mattress is very uncomfortable, and we actually have an old quilt lying on top of the mattress acting as a topper. Yes, the thin quilt really makes a significant difference. So, we won't be getting rid of it anytime soon.

However, the weird old floral print always showed through our white sheet. Eek. Not really great for our style of making the bed. So, I was going through our sheets and realized that I could just put the brown sheet down, and instead of the floral showing through, now you can't even tell that there's anything other than white sheets. 

So that's what I've been up to. What about you folks? Doing crazy things like putting two fitted sheets on one bed? Or blogging about little things like pistachio bowls? Maybe you've just made some mashed potatoes?  You know I love to hear from you!

Keeping Up With the... Bloggers

It is time for... *drumroll please*...

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And because I'm fancy now, I've included the official sponsor video from those wonderful ladies who host and originally came up with the Pinterest challenge: Sherry and Katie. These are their children, Clara and Will (who will someday be married, according to their best friend mothers) explaining all about it!

The Pinterest challenge started about a year and a half ago when Katie and Sherry decided that they should challenge themselves to make one thing each season that they've pinned about. They invite their readers (and friendly bloggers) to join in the fun! So, grab your Pinterest boards, your DIY inspiration hats, and see what you can make!

There's one rule: you have to do your own thing with something that you've pinned, your own twist on something that inspired you! Oh yeah, and you have to make sure that you link back to the original source (be it a blog, a magazine, etc.)

Of course, the Pinterest challenge is hosted by Sherry of Young House Love and Katie of Bower Power Blog. Just so you know, they aren't paid or sponsored by Pinterest in any way: it's just their way of making sure that they stop just being inspired, and start doing the things they want to get done! Like every time they've done it, they invited two guest bloggers to join them as hosts. This winter it's Megan from The Remodeled Life and Michelle from Decor and the Dog.

This will (hopefully) be my first completed Pinterest challenge. In the fall, I attempted to be a part of that one... and I completely failed at actually doing it. *sheepish face palm. It wasn't a great time for me and committing to things. But this time, I'm determined! So determined. Just you wait and see. I'm going to accomplish something! I have a great idea for something for the kitchen! More details to follow!

HOot.

This post has been a long time coming. I think that I finished this project almost a year ago, actually. It was definitely still while we were at the apartment, and I'm sure that it was before Derek and I were married. Clearly, it's about time that I posted about it!

I made this pillow years ago, when my older sister Rachel and I were really into quilting. I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I picked out the materials... Apparently I had no understanding of what went well together. But, time has passed, and I have learned a little bit. The pillow itself was a great size, and since I'm hesitant to get rid of things that I can re-purpose (I think that's my mother's emphasis on recycling coming out), I figured I'd just redo the pillow. 

Yeah. The back wasn't much better. 

First, I had to fill it with more stuffing. Either I hadn't put much in to begin with, or it had become very flat in the time since I originally made it. That meant I had to reopen one of the seams, but that in itself wasn't very hard. 

I took my inspiration for the pillow from something I'd seen on StumbleUpon: a pillow with an owl in a tree. It wasn't very difficult for me to sketch out a rough drawing of the image I had in my head onto some tissue paper, and use that as my template for the fabric pieces. 

Of course, since I didn't (and still don't!) have a sewing machine, the majority of the work was done by hand. I felt very pioneer-esque, crafting things by hand. I also felt very sick of sewing by the end of it. 

Most of the material, I actually picked out of my very large scrap bin: old t-shirts, etc. that I no longer wear. But I did pick up the fabric for the actual cover (as opposed to the fabric for the appliques) from our local fabric store. Since I was going with such a light yellow colour, and I didn't want the old pillow to show through, I layered the yellow with a basic black broadcloth - cheapest stuff I could find, since no one would ever be seeing it. For that particular aspect of the pillow, sewing together the cover, I actually did while I was visiting my parents at Christmas (of 2011! I told you it's been a long time!) because I knew that I'd probably go crazy and stick sewing needles in my eyes if I tried to do all that by hand too. I'm not really known for my patience...

In the end, though, there were no sewing related injuries, and I had a very nice owl pillow. I actually did sew the final seam by hand, because that's the only way I know how to close up a pillow. My mom taught me this neat stitch that she does to sew suture stitches on surgery patients that leaves the thread invisible. I have realized since making it that some of the seams are noticeably crooked, so some day when I have my own sewing machine, I'll fix that. But not before then. Because sewing needles. And eyes.

So there is a very, very late project that I've been meaning on posting about for forever. Talk about procrastinating, eh?